Tag Archives: gary allan

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Country singer Gary Allan was supposed to play Atlantic City, N.J., the day after Hurricane Sandy hit. He never made it, but his thoughts remain with victims of the storm, so he's come up with a way to help.

Fans can view the video for Allan's new single "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)" on his website beginning Tuesday on a special player. The player gives fans a chance to donate to the Red Cross. In return, donors get a free download of the song from Allan's untitled new album due out next year.

Scores of artists have reached out to help raise money in the wake of the superstorm, which killed dozens and did billions of dollars in damage in the northeastern U.S.

“It’s been a good run,” Allan says of the roughly two-month tour. “I love being on the road, so I don’t know that I’m worn out. This has been a fun tour. There’s a lot of camaraderie, and lot of parties. It was sponsored by Kingsford charcoal and they’d have a big grill out after the show every night, so it was nice.”

With his affinity for tattoos, tight jeans and tighter T-shirts, Gary Allan has spent years honing his personal style and living the image he projects. Now, in partnership with his stylist, Renee Layher, he’s opening his own high-end clothing store in Nashville, so locals with a big enough wallet can dress in similar cutting-edge fashion.

Obviously, it’s not all jeans and T-shirts. Allan’s store, called The Label, opens today at 2222 12th Ave. S., and everything in the store is for sale. That means the guitars on the wall, the art, the light fixtures and the tables and chairs all have a price tag. But the clothes — from Tony Sartino custom-tailored suits starting at $3,200 to Logan Riese custom leather jackets — are the real stars.

Sartino, a stylist known for dressing the likes of Jon Bon Jovi and Prince, plans to make monthly visits to The Label to not only help run the store but also to tailor items for customers.

There are 12 designers featured at The Label.

“We’ve talked about doing this for 10 years,” Allan says. “We always said we should start a store. It came together way better than I thought it would.”

Gary Allan strode onstage at 10 a.m. Thursday morning, in the already stifling heat. He surveyed a hill packed with fans and then launched into the first song of CMA Music Festival, "Right Where I Need To Be."

Allan played a 45-minute set and then began prepping for his fan club party on the General Jackson showboat. (it's the first time the floating General has been used during CMA festival).

"We'll put 800 of my biggest fans on that, and we're going to have a private party," Allan said. "That's the highlight of the festival for me. I'm bringing lyric books, and playing them stuff I wrote yesterday, and five days ago, and letting them request stuff that they've heard I've written."

Allan also planned to pose for photos with each fan.

"Your face hurts by the end of that," he said. We're the only genre that does this, where the artists get together and hang, and the fans get access. ... The hardest part for me is playing so early. I usually
don't go to bed until five or six in the morning."

Country artist Gary Allan will lead off this year's CMA Music Festival with his 10 a.m. performance on Thursday, June 9 at the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage, located just beneath Lower Broadway at Riverfront Park.

Country singer Randy Montana has spent much of his time over the last year opening arena shows for some of the biggest names in country music, including Sugarland and Gary Allan. But this Saturday, he’s going to scale things back down to play one of his favorite venues — Exit/In.

Montana grew up in Nashville and spent much of his college years going to the bar to watch shows. Now that he’s playing there himself, he says it’s his priority to make sure everyone has as much fun as he did there as a teenager.

“We have a really good time,” he says. “I really love these intimate spaces. My friends come out, and I’m going to play a bunch of songs off the new record.”

It’s a sure bet his new single “1,000 Faces” will be on the set list. Montana wrote it with songwriting heavyweight Tom Douglas, who has had a hand in writing songs including Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” and Lady Antebellum’s current single “Hello World.”

“I feel like it all came together with this song,” Montana says. “It’s a little different. It has sort of a rocking edge that is a great representation of who I am as an artist and a person.”

Show time is 8 p.m. and admission is $10. For more information visit www.exitin.com.

Reunion shows are so often about familiarity and remembrance. Fans pony up big money to watch dinosaur rock bands replicate decades-old doings.

But Monday night at the Belcourt Theatre, the Desert Rose Band’s reunion concert was much more about renewal than replication. Enlivened by guest visits from Emmylou Harris and Brad Paisley, the Desert Rose Band’s original lineup presented a reunion show that existed fully in the moment, bolstered, not shackled, by memory.

The clumsy moments may have been the dearest. Harris and bandleader Chris Hillman fumbled the opening of “Sin City,” a song Hillman wrote with Harris’ mentor, the late Gram Parsons. But the awkward start gave way to a harmonious, waltz-time wonder as the band got in sync.

Later, Hillman was so enamored of guitarist John Jorgenson’s warp-speed solo on “The Price I Pay” that he forgot to reenter for the final chorus. He returned to the microphone with an astonished look on his face, as if he’d been jerked from the audience onto the stage.

Then again, some of the night’s finer moments were far from clumsy. Paisley, a child of 14 when the Desert Rose Band first hit the charts in 1987 with “Ashes of Love,” played the searing “Hello Trouble” solo with Jorgenson, in harmony. Steel player Jay Dee Maness delivered a lovely, perfectly executed solo on “Together Again,” a song originally recorded by Buck Owens in a version that featured a legendary solo from another ex-Desert Rose Band member, Tom Brumley.Continue reading →

“Lover, Lover” singer Jerrod Niemann is in celebration mode this week — his debut album Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury sold nearly 34,000 copies in its first week on store shelves.

The number is high enough to land Niemann in the top spot on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, breaking Lady Antebellum’s six-month hold on the chart position. Niemann came in at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 all-genre album chart.

"We definitely weren’t expecting that," Niemann said of the sales success. "We were hoping some people besides my mom would pick up a copy."

Judge Jerrod isn't your typical country set -- the singer introduces many of the album's tracks with stories or humorous recorded snippets, much like you might hear on many rap and hip-hop records. That "little bit of extra entertainment," Niemann said, made a particular impact on his mother.

"When my mom heard the record she said that it confirmed I was still in my terrible twos," the singer joked.

Niemann is currently on the road promoting his new CD, and he has plans to head out with Gary Allan and Randy Houser in the fall.

"I already started taking my vitamins," Niemann said about his tour preparation. "My original plan was to find an IV drip with vitamins and water, but now I’ve decided I want my IV drip to be Bud Light."

Fans can catch Niemann on both country music networks this week. At 7 p.m. on Friday (July 23), the singer-songwriter will be on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, and at 1:30 p.m. Saturday he’ll show up on CMT Insider.